Currently, commerce suppliers and/or e-commerce related websites, whether business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C), provide methods for a customer to navigate inventory. In particular, it is quite common for a large supplier or vendor, selling items from many different manufacturers and/or distributors, to provide a unique vendor item number (e.g., a catalog number, ordering number, inventory number, StockKeeping Unit (SKU), etc.) that corresponds to an item in the vendor's inventory system, and not necessarily to the manufacturer's or secondary item number.
In such instances where the vendor item number does not match the manufacturer's number, cross reference functionality typically exists as part of the general keyword search functionality of the vendor website. In these instances, the vendor website typically requires a customer to enter the part number, manufacturer's model number, etc., in a search field, to receive search results in a search page, and to peruse the results to finally select the desired product to research and/or add to the customers shopping cart. This searching capability, while sometimes sufficient for finding the correct vendor catalog number, oftentimes yields an inconsistent customer experience by, for example, making it difficult for the customer to quickly find and select the correct product easily and/or conveniently within the ordering process itself.
Still further, in other instances a substantial number of orders on the vendor's website can originate from website functionality such as a “bulk order pad” or interactive shopping cart. In this instance, a form that contains a table of entry fields, such as for example, a field for the vendor's ordering number and its associated ordering quantity. In this manner, orders can be quickly placed, provided the customer has the vendor ordering number handy. Unfortunately, having a vendor's ordering number on hand may not always be feasible, requiring a separate customer look-up step as detailed above.
Thus, while the background systems and methods identified herein, generally work for their intended purpose, the subject invention provides improvements thereto, particularly by a system in which a customer can enter a manufacturer, competitor, or other non-vendor specific ordering number into a bulk ordering system and have those numbers transformed in-situ to the vendor's item number, either in real-time, near real-time, and/or through a batch-like process.